Laser etching technology has since grown to become a sizable international market and an accepted engraving or marking technology in a host of industries ranging from medical and automotive to textile and electronics. It is used to identify parts, etch company logos and decorative artwork on substrates, serialize numbers, scribe graphics and patterns on apparel, and impart codes on different materials and a variety of other applications. Laser etching technology can and often does replace some sandblasting, chemical etching, embossing, screen printing and ink jet printing processes with a lower cost, high quality printed image being produced.
Our issued patents and copending applications, as well as other information, describe how a host of different graphics and patterns are lazed directly onto myriad substrates including but not limited to: wood, plastic, acrylic, glass, ceramic, textiles, leather, vinyl, marble, melamine, metals, alloys, composites, paper, mylar, rubber, foam, stone, polycarbonate, lexan, silicon, veneer, laminates, fiberglass, steel, tile, cork, and corian. The laser marks these substrates by several different means such as melting the surface, heating the surface to produce a color change, vaporizing the dye to produce a color change, annealing the surface, and actually engraving (by removing material on the surface) a mark with some depth of penetration. Sometimes, the substrates are sanded or coated after lazing to insure a clean and non charred surface.
The authors have been granted several patents on methods to laze graphics and patterns on leathers and textiles and have submitted several patent applications for lazing graphics and patterns on engineered wood and other building product substrates.